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Haley Joel Osment Thinks Kendrick Lamar’s Joel Osteen Mix-Up on ‘Euphoria’ Was ‘Intentional’

The actor says he received hundreds of texts following the release of "Euphoria" while he was shooting another movie in Ireland.

Haley Joel Osment attends the Los Angeles Premiere of Amazon MGM Studios' "Blink Twice" at DGA Theater Complex on Aug. 8, 2024 in Los Angeles.

Haley Joel Osment attends the Los Angeles Premiere of Amazon MGM Studios' "Blink Twice" at DGA Theater Complex on Aug. 8, 2024 in Los Angeles.

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

Actor Haley Joel Osment reacted to being referenced on Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria,” and he believes K. Dot purposefully mixed him up with pastor Joel Osteen on the Drake diss.

The Associated Press caught up with Osment at the Blink Twice premiere in Los Angeles on Aug. 8 to get his thoughts on Lamar’s apparent reference while naming films like A.I. and The Sixth Sense that HJO starred in around the turn of the century.


“Am I battlin’ ghost or AI/ N—a feelin’ like Joel Osteen/ Funny, he was in a film called A.I. And my sixth sense tellin’ me to off him,” Kendrick raps on the track.

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Osment recalled being in Ireland shooting for an upcoming movie when he received hundreds of texts blowing up his phone about Lamar’s “Euphoria,” which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“I was shooting in Ireland when all that happened and I got like a hundred texts in the middle of the night. I was like, what is going on,” he said.

While K. Dot actually names Texas pastor Joel Osteen instead of him, Osment believes he did it with intention because of Lamar’s attention to detail, which led him to think there’s a deeper meaning to the mix-up.

“I think he’s too precise,” Osment added. “I don’t know for sure and I’m not gonna assume that he knows my exact name, but the way I’ve heard people talk about that and certain analysis that I’ve read about it, I think that it’s an intentional scrambling of my name and that other guy’s name. Because Kendrick’s too precise to just make a mistake like that.”

Kendrick Lamar also later pulled Osment’s “I see dead people” line from The Sixth Sense to open the Cali bounce of his “Not Like Us” anthem, which topped the Hot 100 for two weeks.

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Watch the clip below.

This article was first published by Billboard U.S.
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Great Lake Swimmers
Robert Georgeff

Great Lake Swimmers

FYI

Music News Digest: National Music Centre Opens OHSOTO’KINO Recording Bursary for Indigenous Artists, Great Lake Swimmers Hit The Road

Also this week: Toronto's Our Music Festival returns for a third edition, Wavemakers: Music Futures Conference & Showcase launches in Halifax.

OHSOTO’KINO is an Indigenous programming initiative from the National Music Centre focusing on three elements: creation of new music in NMC’s recording studios, artist development through a music incubator program and exhibitions via the annually updated Speak Up! gallery. The OHSOTO’KINO Recording Bursary program is open to First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists. Two submissions — one for contemporary music, one for traditional genres — will be awarded a one-week recording session at Studio Bell to produce a commercial release. The deadline to apply here is March 1. Past recipients of the bursary include Juno winner Joel Wood, Twin Flames and PIQSIQ.

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